How to become an effective storyteller

Ever considered writing a blog post for FloridaACE? Looking at highlighting one of your colleagues? Or sharing a motivational story with us? Crafting a story can be very easy. It’s all about capturing your target audience, and understanding what they want to know about!

We recently found a really great article via: Fusion360agency.com

Use these tips and submit your story in the following:

1. Your Inspiration Career Story: Fill Out Here 
2. Spotlights: Fill Out Here
3. Program or Expert Advice: Fill Out Here

Use these strategies to help you write an awesome article for FloridaACEblog!

Lights. Camera. Destination Miami

Lights. Camera. Destination Miami. The 2016 Florida ACE Annual Conference provided a space to re-frame and examine current career service practices and enrich the future through conference programming. The conference evaluation is designed to give attendees the opportunity to provide insight and feedback to their experience in addition to provide suggestions to improve the 2016 annual conference. Thus, the purpose of the following report is to illustrate the survey results for the conference and to be utilized as an objective marker to help plan, enhance, and maximize future conference experiences.

The conference evaluation survey consisted of 18 questions where participants were given the opportunity to rate the overall conference, programming, and events, and provide feedback on what they found to be most and least useful and/or effective. A rating scale of Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor, and N/A were used in conjunction with open-ended questions for comments and suggestions. The survey received 58 total responses yielding a 48% response rate. Overall, over 86% of conference attendees who participated in the survey described the conference as “very good” or “excellent.”  Additionally, the publicity and promotions, conference programming, and conference location were well received by conference attendees.

Programming was viewed as a quality component of the conference experience. The opening and closing sessions framed the multi-faceted nature of the work well. Additionally, breakout sessions engaged and developed multiple conversations across institution types. The top rated breakout sessions were as follows: Educating Students about Professional Dress in a Gender Inclusive Manner (4.71/5.0); On Campus Brand: The Road to Success (4.64/5.0); and SITE – The Senior Insight and Transition Event – Aka: The Senior Career Conference (4.57/5.0). Roundtables, special events, meals, and receptions were well received by the general membership as well.

The Florida ACE Board of Directors and Conference Committee members is always willing to receive feedback for conference planning purposes. Should you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contact any Board of Director.

I decided to “come to the Dark Side”

– a.k.a. higher education administration – after wrapping up a Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing contract, wherein I realized that educating students on professionalism was truly my calling. My transition led me from the Northeast to Florida’s Suncoast, where I have been fortunate enough to find my home at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee.

Not knowing what to expect from my first FloridaACE conference, and having only seen (a version of) Miami when playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City or bingeing CSI: Miami, I decided to go in with open expectations. After all, these were my new colleagues – an even broader cohort than the one I already shared on the West Coast.

Although the days, much like any exceptional conference, were filled with engaging and frequently enlightening presentations, the down time was where this experience truly came alive. The lighthearted, down-to-earth atmosphere of the conference afforded its participants a level of comfort I had not felt in (non-Career Services) academic conferences, and when that comfort mixed with hot Miami nights and a cocktail hour or dancing, all of a sudden, we were all on top of the world.

All of this personally culminated in an amazing tour of South Beach’s nightlife on the eve/day of my birthday, June 24. I had the time of my life with colleagues I just met literally less than 48 hours earlier, and we celebrated like we had been friends for years.

During the final excellent breakfast of FloridaACE 2016, after only two hours of sleep, I felt tired but elated. My year of transition was capped by a magical meeting of the minds in one of the coolest cities in our country. My notebook was stuffed with awesome ideas, my phone was updated with several important new contacts, and Miami was a symbol of promise – all these new experiences were exactly what I had hoped for, and more were on the way. The Dark Side never seemed so sunny.

Ben Heins – Internship Coordinator, Career Services
University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee

Tribulations of a lost phone

Barbara Cambia, Executive Director Hannifan Center for Career Connections                    – Lynn University, Boca Raton, FL 

Calling off the search was difficult.  You had become an extension of me. We were always together.  No matter what I was doing you were there for me from the time I awoke until the time I laid my head to rest.  Over the three days when you went missing I would go to reach for you but you were not there and each time a feeling of panicked fright would set in, a feeling of helplessness.

I had become dependent on you; answering my every question, preparing me for the day and connecting me to the world.  I would look around the room and everyone had a you. Everyone busy looking down and connecting and I was just sitting there no one to talk to no one to connect with.  There was a gaping hole, a pit in my stomach, what was I going to do.  I looked for you high and low, a feeling of desperation set in, a desperation that caused me to question everyone around me “Could their you be mine?”  Could this be a case of identity fraud?  Surely you wouldn’t leave me like this, I know you would find your way back home to me.  I felt so alone and isolated, unable to connect with the world around me.

After three days the search and rescue team suggested to me that I call off the search, that is was over, that you would not be coming back to me.  It was agonizing but I did it. I had to let you go.

Presidents Council

Rob Liddell, Saint Leo University 

President’s Council

Greetings friends! I don’t know about you but Daylight Savings came at a much needed time. I have been looking for any extra time in my day and week to invest in my family, my colleagues and my students. In times like these I find it important to remember that…

• We have all been given the same amount of time.
• We have also been given an opportunity to invest our attention in various people, processes and pursuits.
• What we invest our time, talent and treasure in reflect our values and comes to fill our lives.

The members of the Florida Association of Colleges and Employers have made an important investment in me, personally and professionally. Through this association I have had opportunities to hear about innovative approaches as I listen to others describe how career development and university relations are changing “on the fly.” Unique to this group, professionals from a broad spectrum of higher education institutions and industries are consistently generous to offer their best thinking and to identify their missteps so that a colleague will have a greater opportunity to succeed. Lastly, Florida ACE has provided me several friends; not mere acquaintances or professional network. These are people that pick the phone up when you call and are genuinely interested in hearing an update or helping with a request.

John Sheehy (Stetson) and I are leading the President’s Council committee for this year’s Conference. The President’s Council serves an important role within our Association. Not only does it provide organizations, institutions, vendors and individuals an opportunity to express their sustained commitment to this strong professional group by sponsoring aspects of our Conference, the President’s Council partners with these supporters to amplify their brand amongst the Association membership.

After serving on the Board this past year, I have a much fuller understanding about what goes into hosting a great Annual Conference. In addition to working diligently to select strong venues and creatively to attract first-tier keynote speakers, feeding and providing audio/visual services for our attendees requires a good deal of support. We are asking you to please consider supporting the Florida Association of Colleges and Employers through the President’s Council. Our sponsorship levels are shared below in a table. A link to an online form can be found here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Should you have an in-kind gift or an idea for a sponsorship that you would like to discuss, please contact either John (jsheehy@stetson.edu) or I (robert.liddell@saintleo.edu).

John Sheehy, Stetson University — Rob Liddell, Saint Leo University